Utility vehicles including (but not limited to) grounds maintenance vehicles such as ride-on and walk-behind lawn mowers, material spreaders, and the like are known. These vehicles typically include various controls accessible by the operator during use.
Among the typical controls are a steering system for directing vehicle travel. For example, steering of the vehicle may often be achieved via a conventional steering wheel, by a handlebar-type device, or by a lever or “stick” control system.
While effective, such steering systems may present drawbacks under certain scenarios. For example, in the case of some steering wheel configurations, the operator might keep one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand on a transmission or speed control. Actuation of other vehicle controls may, therefore, require temporarily moving one hand to another control input.
Alternatively, vehicles having individually and differentially driven drive wheels independently controlled by corresponding left and right drive control levers may allow the operator to control both speed and turning via manipulation of the two control levers. However, the operator may still need to temporarily move a hand from one of the control levers in order to manipulate other control inputs. This need to temporarily relocate a hand from the steering controls to another control input may also be present with handlebar-type steering systems.